He lures the gullible throwing the bait of treasure troves, tricks them to part with money and kills them. Forty-seven-year old Ramati Satyanarayana of Nagarkurnool is reported to have murdered 11 persons in the past three years, said Deputy Inspector General of Police L. S. Chowhan.
The alleged serial killer was finally arrested on Tuesday with the investigators stitching up clues in a case of person missing from Langerhouz of Hyderabad. “Initially, the accused was only a suspect in the missing case of Govula Venkatesh of Langerhouz. As interrogation continued, he admitted to 11 murders committed since 2020,” the DIG of VII Zone told The Hindu. Four of the 11 victims were women.
The accused lives with his family in Nagarkurnool. His father was a quack. Mr. Satyanarayana used to convince gullible persons in the villages surrounding Nagarkurnool that he had the mystical powers to identify treasure troves. “Those believing in superstition that treasure troves can make them rich fell into his trap is what we understand after questioning him. We are taking him into custody again to reconstruct all his crimes,” Mr. Chowhan explained.
In the first week of December, a housewife, G. Laxmi, approached Nagarkurnool police complaining that her husband Venkatesh was not to be seen after leaving their home in Hyderabad. The woman and her brother told the police that he left home to meet Mr. Satyanarayana.
The needle of suspicion naturally swung towards the accused since the missing person was last seen reportedly with him before disappearing. During initial questioning, Mr. Satyanarayana feigned innocence on the whereabouts of Mr. Venkatesh. The missing person’s family members during their interaction with the police said that they “did not care about the money but wanted Venkatesh alive”.
“This issue of money threw up a fresh angle. When we asked what is the money issue, his family members said he had given nearly ₹9 lakh to Mr. Satyanarayana,” the DIG said. But Mr. Satyanarayana continued to maintain that he simply knew nothing.
However, he spilled the beans when the police ‘intensified the interrogation using their special techniques’. As the accused opened up admitting to his guilt in 11 murders even the interrogators were shocked at the execution of murders in cold-blooded manners. In the missing person’s case, Mr. Venkatesh and his friends approached Mr. Satyanarayana to help them find treasure troves at Kollapur.
Mr. Venkatesh is from Nagarkurnool area but shifted to Hyderabad for livelihood. The accused used to give some herbs to Mr. Venkatesh and ask him to place them at an isolated place convincing him that it was one of the ways to identify the hidden wealth. After attempting this four to five times, Mr. Satyanarayana told Mr. Venkatesh that three pregnant women should be sacrificed to find the treasure trove.
Scared by this plan, Mr. Venkatesh started insisting for return of his money. At this stage, Mr. Satyanarayana hatched a plot to eliminate him. On December 3, the accused asked him to come to Nagarkurnool. In the early hours of the next day, he gave some liquid to Mr. Venkatesh who fell unconscious after gulping it. The accused drove him in his car to a secluded place in the hillocks of Jalalpur where he killed the victim by pouring acid (the chemical substance is yet to be identified) in his mouth.
Out of the 11 murders, four of a family were killed in Wanaparthy district. The accused is reported to have killed one person in Balaganoor police station area of Karnataka and another person in Peddavadugur of Anantapur in Andhra Pradesh. The accused was presented before local court and remanded in judicial custody.
